Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Thirsty? How about some cow urine?

I am not much of a soft drink/soda/pop drinker so the thought of quenching my thirst with a drink made of cow urine, "mixed with a few medicinal and ayurvedic herbs" will most definitely not register on my choice of beverages! Even if the drink is cheap!

A nationalist Hindu group in India wants to promote this "cow water" as one of the ways to rid India of foreign influences and bring India back to it Hindu roots.

The bovine brew is in the final stages of development by the Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India's biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, according to the man who makes it.

Om Prakash, the head of the department, said the drink – called "gau jal", or "cow water" – in Sanskrit was undergoing laboratory tests and would be launched "very soon, maybe by the end of this year".

"Don't worry, it won't smell like urine and will be tasty too," he told The Times from his headquarters in Hardwar, one of four holy cities on the River Ganges. "Its USP will be that it's going to be very healthy. It won't be like carbonated drinks and would be devoid of any toxins."

The drink is the latest attempt by the RSS – which was founded in 1925 and now claims eight million members – to cleanse India of foreign influence and promote its ideology of Hindutva, or Hindu-ness

Would you try this drink if it ever becomes available? Me? No, thank you! I take that back. If I were dying of thirst and that was the only drink available, I would! Maybe the herbs in it will help make it more palatable.